What can I say about Mazey Village?
It's a game about animals, bush, the silent cartographer, puzzles, exploration, coziness, a cutesy aesthetic, and Belgians.
I've played this across Windows, SteamOS, and at one point even on Steam Deck during the first demo periods--it runs great on everything, and the only person who I've seen say they had poor performance was running with a laptop AMD Vega 3...let that sink in.
Your hardware needs to be over 10 years old and mid for 2015 for this to run poorly. Do you have a mid computer from 2015? If so, try turning the graphics down from ULTRA, which have been on by default for me every time (is that a detection setting, or assumption since this can run off a Steam Deck ezpz?)
Onto the game though--what's it actually about?
You are thrown into a world of mazes, villages, animals, weather with faces, puzzles, and tasks. The world develops around you as you progress, leaving each portion of the map revealed to be a new mystery to encountered rather than something you look at in advance and slowly march towards. I prefer this method for personal reasons, and I feel like it makes me want to discover and add onto the map more than simply fueling a desire to un-fog my map. Without seeing what will go where, or how it will shape out, it strikes an odd satisfaction when you have everything assembled, puzzles solved, and everyone happy.
This game largely scratches both a puzzle and Animal Crossing itch, something I feel like PC has been heavily missing out on for years.
If there is another Animal Crossing clone that doesn't rely on the players to create the gameplay, please let me know, because I really enjoy how this game has content.
This game avoids the biggest pitfall of modern gaming, aside from trying to make a Battle Royale, which is creating a game that outsources motivation and story to an unpaid employee: the player. My biggest gripe with survival-craft games is that these game developers have often released an entirely empty or devoid-of-story content product and ask the players to pick up that slack. Without a goal, without purpose, without an end, why are you playing it?
To survive?
Get a job, you lunatic. I swear I should make Job Application Simulator and include malware that emails your filled applications to jobs if you think a game without purpose, goal, or end is a good product. You deserve to work for a mail service if you like work that doesn't end as a means of survival.
Me? I enjoy an end; I enjoy a point, and Mazey Village has one. The village has been destroyed, and needs to be fixed.
Sure this is 'A man has fallen in Lego City' as a plot, but what's the campaign/story for V Rising, Conan Exiles, MeinKraft? Go ahead, I'll wait.
As you meet more villagers you help solve their problems, get items and things along the way, solve and reveal more of the map, and get a better understanding of who the people are and what kind of place this is: a place to go to and relax.
After the tutorial area you're given tools for recreation, like bug catching and fishing.
Again, this scratches an itch that Animal Crossing only really used to do, however this game has the common courtesy of having events happen every day rather than just on actual real-life calendar holidays. While I haven't gotten as far as others, having reloading/radiant quests so you don't run out of tasks is genius. The bite-size gameplay combined with a necessarily aggressive autosave means that you don't have to worry about anything. No going back to your house to save, no going to a save point after you've feng-shui'd the windmills, play your game and enjoy it.
Enjoy the puzzles, enjoy exploring, enjoy petting every animal that isn't a bullet-bird, enjoy leading a parade of every animal like your name is Noah, and enjoy discovering the rest of the map, the town, and the secrets and mysteries left intentionally for you to find rather than randomly or procedurally generated.
In a world where everyone is looking for a shortcut to make a buck, everyone is relying on AI or procedural generation, Slappy Inc has delivered yet another hand-crafted masterpiece that deserves to be in your library. With no flaws, and no real reason why I haven't played more of this game aside from not having as much free time lately, I think this game should have no difficulty finding its way into everyone's library.
If the game is missing anything, it's more content. It's in Early Access, but I think at this price point and earnest honesty from the developers both in patches and on discord, you should invest.
Without playing further, my only suggestion was that I wish I could plant trees and flowers. If this is already in the game, forgive me.
5/5 - Mazey Village Crossing.
Explore Charming Worlds ⭐
A Living World Full of Cozy Moments 🌸 
